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U.S. Defense Department task force to ‘chart a strong path forward’ on PRC threat

FORUM Staff

A new U.S. Department of Defense task force will undertake a comprehensive review of the national security challenges posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and quickly issue recommendations to counter what defense officials called the PRC’s “pacing threat” to the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

“China is seeking to overturn the current rules-based structure, which has benefitted all nations in the Indo-Pacific region,” the Defense Department said in a February 10, 2021, news release. “The United States and its allies seek to continue the free and open environment in the region. China is using all elements of national power to bend the nations to its will.”

The 15-member task force, which will be led by Ely Ratner, a China expert and special assistant to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, has four months to develop recommendations in high-priority areas including: strategy; operational concepts; intelligence; technology; and force structure, posture and management. The initiative, which officials termed a “sprint effort,” also will include a review of U.S. alliances and partnerships and their impact on U.S.-China relations.

“The task force will work quickly, drawing on civilian and military experts across the [Defense] Department, to provide, within the next few months, recommendations to Secretary Austin on key priorities and decision points so that we can chart a strong path forward on China-related matters,” U.S. President Joe Biden, pictured, said February 10 in announcing the group’s formation at the Pentagon. “It will require a whole-of-government effort, bipartisan cooperation in Congress, and strong alliances and partnerships.

“And we need to meet the growing challenges posed by China to keep the peace and defend our interests in the Indo-Pacific and globally,” Biden said.

Hours later, Biden held his first call with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping since taking office three weeks before. Biden “underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan,” according to the White House.

While also discussing shared challenges with Xi, such as arms control, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in Wuhan, China, the U.S. leader emphasized his administration’s commitment to preserving a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. That pledge encompasses working with allies and partners to conduct freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea and other international waters, as well as preventing incursions into sovereign territory and exclusive economic zones.

Biden’s comments to Xi drew praise and support from regional partners subjected to the PRC’s aggressive tactics.

“As a member of the international community, Taiwan will continue to work closely with like-minded countries, including the United States, to jointly contribute to the stability and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region,” a spokesman for the democratic island’s Presidential Office said, according to Reuters.

U.S. defense officials have highlighted the CCP’s push to transform its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a world-class military by 2050, including through a massive modernization program. Meanwhile, the CCP’s leaders “have increasingly pushed the PLA to think about how it will operate beyond China’s borders and its immediate periphery,” the Defense Department noted in a 2020 report to Congress.

Evidence of the communist regime’s intentions is already visible worldwide.

“From the Horn of Africa to South America to throughout the Indo-Pacific, China is asserting its growing influence in ways that often undermine the established international order that has maintained peace since the end of World War II,” the Defense Department said in a February 11 news release.

Ratner said the task force will identify the primary challenges and opportunities related to the PRC, rank national security priorities and determine whether additional resources are required. Recommendations will be discussed with Congress and other stakeholders.

“China’s a matrix problem,” Ratner told reporters, “because it cuts into almost every single functional issue and, frankly, increasingly every geographic issue that we deal with.”

 

IMAGE CREDIT: LISA FERDINANDO/U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

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